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The past year was an unusual one for the decision-makers at Vancouver city hall.

There were no post-hockey riots to wrestle with. No one “Occupied” the Vancouver Art Gallery grounds. The Olympic Games had long moved on to dazzle the world in other host cities.

Indeed, when asked in a year-end interview to name the biggest challenge of 2012, Mayor Gregor Robertson was temporarily stumped.

“That’s a good question,” he said, after a lengthy pause.

“There are lots of challenges, but this year wasn’t nearly as chaotic as previous years.”

Robertson characterized 2012 as “a good year to be productive and get the longer-term work done.”

It was the year the city introduced a controversial strategy aimed at boosting density along the city’s major arterials and increasing the stock of affordable housing for low to middle-income renters and buyers.

The plan has proven unpopular with many Vancouver residents who worry sweeping densification efforts will erode neighbourhood character and livability. Some people have even suggested the strategy could threaten Robertson’s political future.

But Robertson maintains the city has no choice but to move forward.

“Right now, we’re feeling the pinch,” he said. “People are being forced out of the city because there is no affordable housing supply. Companies are deciding not to move their operations here because there isn’t enough affordable housing for their staff.”

The mayor said the new year will be about “approving and advancing” up to 20 project proposals that fit under the strategy, including townhouses, row houses and condominiums up to six storeys high.

“It is not an overnight solution,” he said. “It’s going to take a number of years to make sure we have an adequate supply (of affordable housing) coming on line.”

The coming year will also see the city work to strengthen its pitch for a $2.8 billion subway line to run underground along the Broadway corridor, from VCC-Clark to the University of B.C.

Metro region leaders are pushing the province to give them the power to create new tools to fund transit improvements, such as road pricing, which could include tolls or charging drivers the distance they drive, or a carbon tax.

Robertson said the new tools must be approved by the B.C. government “as soon as possible.”

“As far as the (metro) mayors’ are concerned, this needs to happen by the end of February, or we are going to be calling for solutions through the B.C. election, putting leaders on the spot, and asking, ‘What will you deliver?’,” he said.

The new rapid-transit line is among the more than 180 transportation and land-use concepts set out in a long-range transportation vision, unveiled earlier in 2012.

The Transportation 2040 plan is designed to revolutionize the way we travel, whether by car, bicycle or on foot.

Among its more ambitious ideas is the potential creation of a tree-lined pedestrian greenway using two of eight traffic lanes on Granville Bridge and a proposal to remove the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts.

Council is expected to make a decision on the future of the viaducts in 2013.

As 2012 comes to a close, Robertson reflected on city’s finances, and an assessment from Moody’s in December that revised the city’s AAA credit rating from stable to negative.

According to the assessment, the rating downgrade reflects the city’s “consistent, positive financial results, strong liquidity position and diversified economy.” But notes the debt burden, related to the Olympic Village, is “higher than most AAA-rated Canadian municipalities.”

Robertson said the city is still in the process of selling off the last 200 units in the village on Southeast False Creek, and is on track to paying off the remainder of the $572-million loan it gave to Millennium Developments, which built the Olympic Village but then went into voluntary receivership in 2010.

“We are approaching the culmination of that deal. It will likely be another couple of years,” he said.

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Mayor Gregor Robertson reflects on year that’s been, what’s to come

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